Currently numerous pre-recorded discs, in formats such as the Digital Versatile Disc (DVD), are available on the market. These discs can be played without any other additional information. However, it is envisaged that in the future the DVD standard will be extended with new applications, for instance advanced interactive features. With such new applications in the future content authors can make the content that is currently available on the market on non-interactive DVD-discs more attractive by adding interactivity to them. Examples of such new applications are for instance adding a multi-angle view to a movie or the insertion of new scenes in the original content. One possibility is to manufacture new discs with both the existing content and the new applications. However, this requires re-authoring of the content on the pre-recorded-discs, wherein re-authoring may degrade the quality of the content.
The state of the art high-capacity storage standard is BluRay, soon emerging on the market in consumer products. BluRay Disc (BD) is a radically new optical storage medium offering higher storage capacities than legacy optical storage media. It is envisaged that a BD-player will be a system, which has advanced interactive features, such as optional network access, local storage in the player, and a programmable platform in the form of Java. This means that the content author can include Java applications on the disc which can make use of the network and the local storage, combine this with the content on disc and so provide a seamless interactive movie experience to the user. Hence, BD offers a platform fulfilling the requirements for providing the above mentioned advanced interactive features.
WO-A1-0063916 discloses a system for updating content stored on a portable storage medium by means of a separate storage medium. In an embodiment disclosed in WO-A1-0063916, the separate storage medium is only received in dependence of the portable storage medium. However, WO-A1-0063916 does for instance not provide for playback of a sequence of video clips, which are located across multiple discs. Another drawback is that a separate storage medium is needed, and furthermore, Divergence Titles, for which an explanation is given hereinafter, are not supported.
A Divergence Title is a Title that has multiple playback Paths, wherein a playback path is dynamically selected at a branch point in accordance with the user's interaction and/or the program on the disc. There may also be a merge point within a Divergence Title. For instance, a Divergence Title may be applied to an adventure game. For example the user explores a cave and is presented with road choices—the user chooses a road at each branch point and finally gets to the goal or falls into a trap. This example is illustrated in FIG. 1.
As mentioned above, there is a need to provide interactivity over multiple discs, especially for BDs. Hence, one object of the invention is to provide a method and device that enable divergence titles over multiple discs. The solution according to the invention, as described hereinafter, makes it possible that a certain playback path in a divergence title is located on separate discs, which allows a content author to provide for example a game wherein the choices made during the game determine which disc should be inserted in the player, and thus for instance encourage people to buy the other discs.
In the BD format the logical organization of content on disc is done through playlists. A disc may contain one or more playlists, wherein these playlists refer to video clips on the BD. From a user's perspective, playback of a title means playback of a list of video clips, which are all referenced in one playlist. So for each title there is one playlist. However, these possibilities are limited to associating interactivity with a single disc. With respect to multiple BD discs it is not known how to extend interactivity over multiple discs. An example of a problem generated by the lack of extended interactivity is when each disc of a set of discs contains part of a video sequence and the end-user has to buy all discs to play that sequence.
Hence, an improved method of providing interactivity with optical discs would be advantageous and in particular for BD, allowing for increased flexibility and/or offering new applications would be advantageous.